If part of your new normal is making a career move into technology, a new study by online job site Dice shows that IT job hiring was on a significant rise during the second quarter of 2021. The Dice Q2 Tech Job Report took a snapshot across the entire tech sector and found that technology-job postings jumped 16% during that period.
The Dice study analysed over 1 million tech job postings put up from April to June 2021 (the data was provided by Dice partner Burning Glass Technologies, which has information on more than 1 billion current and historical global job postings). It then compared that data with the job-posting numbers from Q1 (January to March 2021). This report continues throughout the year, showing changing job data every quarter based on posting volume but also slicing that data by employer, location, occupation, and skill.
Want to know what you need to know? Dice surveyed the Q1 to Q2 variance of the most popular tech skills. Out of 50 skills profiled, none saw a drop in demand in Q2 from where they were in Q1, and only Microsoft .NET development stayed the same. All of the other 49 tech skills saw an increase in demand. Topping the chart with 23% from Q1 to Q2 was Atlassian Jira. This is one of the most popular help desk platforms in the world, because it also handles additional tasks such as IT change management.
Salesforce administrators saw the next-highest boost between Q1 and Q2, at 22%. This is likely due not only to the need for administrators to aid with hybrid work but also because Salesforce just acquired the popular team messaging app Slack and is now working diligently to integrate it up and down the entire Salesforce stack.
The next set of chart-topping skills all had the same variance score—plus 21% from Q1 to Q2—but this is a long list. It included high-tech development skills, such as Kubernetes containers, knowledge of the Scrum framework, SAP database management, and any kind of IT security know-how. But it also included some managerial skills, such as managing and improving business processes.
If you're less worried about what to know and more about where you'll need to know it, the Dice report also showed the increase in tech hiring by location. Austin topped the list with 25%, which was no surprise, but Boston had the same score—a little more unexpected. Dallas and New York City saw the next-largest job posting growth between Q1 and Q1, with 22% and 21%, respectively. Atlanta and Washington, DC were also strong contenders, but surprisingly, traditional tech hub Seattle saw no growth between Q1 and Q2.
If you're good with what to know and where to know it, then the last variable is where you should send your resume. Dice declined to post actual growth statistics here, but the study does have a list of the top 50 companies doing tech hiring in Q2. Among the top 10, you'll find (unsurprisingly) Amazon and IBM. A little less expected (at least that they'd hit the top 10) were Charles Schwab and Fidelity. Also surprising were some of the names that didn't make the top 10, including Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce.